Tonight’s episode of The Vampire Diaries will leave you seeing ghosts..literally. Uncle Werewolf, Mason Lockwood is back..and with a vengeance. He plans to give Damon a taste of his own medicine.
As we begin, Damon heads straight for Bonnie and Caroline, who are decorating for some kind of spirit squad event as per usual. Now that Bonnie is aware that her spell to send Vicky Donovan back to the “other side” has backfired, she is ready to work some more voodoo. Luckily, she won’t have to go it alone – a little magical intervention leads her right to the spell she needs.
Meanwhile, the Stefan issue is the topic of conversation at the lunch table for the Gilbert cohort. Elena has a new plan up her sleeve, Lexi. The only snag, Damon killed Lexi in season 1. According to Stefan’s extremely thorough journal keeping, every time in the past that he’s been his “ripper” alter ego, Lexi is the one to bring him back.
Bonnie and Caroline head to the old house to cast the spell, which brings grandma witch back to the party. She brings information from the other side, the only way to close the door that was left wide open to the ghosts with unfinished business, is to destroy Elena’s necklace.
Complications arise when Mystic Falls finds itself home to a slew of these ghosts, including the tomb vampires, with a grudge against the founding families.
The plus side of this open door invitation? Lexi. Lexi is back and ready to do what she does best, save Stefan. She manages to overtake him and chain him to a chair in a dingy dungeon like room, where she gets to work. Elena sticks around for the first part of the torture, but can’t handle it and makes a quick exit.
The tomb vampires are already wreaking havoc during a founders’ day affair, killing a member of the founding family. Anna admits to stealing the necklace and returns it to stop the chaos.
Damon and Mason team up help stop the originals. An unlikely duo, Mason takes the high road to protect his nephew, Tyler. “I don’t need revenge, I need redemption.” The answer to killing Klaus might be hiding somewhere beneath the Lockwood cellar.
The Bennett witches destroy the talisman, and the ghosts are sent back to the other side – but not before some of them manage to find their peace. Meanwhile, Anna found her mother and while Lexi couldn’t save Stefan, she gave Elena a new found hope. The necklace may have represented hope for Stefan once, but now it all lies in one person, Elena. Mason isn’t able to find the solution before he leaves, but at least Damon has a new lead now.
A touching friend moment between Alaric and Damon renews a friendship. Damon admits that he only really has two people in his life he trusts: Elena and Alaric. A run-in with a ghost gave him a little perspective.
Finally, Elena heads home to carry on with her life, but leaves Stefan with some perspective of his own: “I won’t love a ghost for the rest of my life.”
Will Elena’s moving last line make a difference in the fight for Stefan’s humanity? Will Jeremy be able to move on now that Anna has? And, more pressing, what does the talisman reappearing mean for Bonnie?
Tune in next week to find out.